Icelander said:

Single celled organisms basically either expand into their environment or contract to avoid it. Really we do the same. If we feel calm and relaxed we are confident and expand into our environment. When afraid we contract and close ourselves off.

Now if, lets say, in those formative years you experienced too much contraction through a very anxiety creating dysfunctional environment, you might find yourself with a default setting of contraction. You really can't fully expand anymore because some part of you is somewhat permanently set in contraction. Now this would operate below conscious levels most of the time imo.

So you are in a situation were you want to expand and you feel you are doing the right things but you are contracting instead. You don't know why, everything feels out of control. It's as if some outside force was influencing you.

Now think about the idea of Demonic possession. Wouldn't it make sense that some people would feel like they were possessed by dark forces. The contraction being unconscious and automatic you wouldn't have a clue as to why you couldn't have the experience that your conscious mind was trying to direct.

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Freedom said:

Icelander said:

Now if, lets say, in those formative years you experienced too much contraction through a very anxiety creating dysfunctional environment, you might find yourself with a default setting of contraction. You really can't fully expand anymore because some part of you is somewhat permanently set in contraction. Now this would operate below conscious levels most of the time imo.

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what makes you think that people on philosophy forum on the internet would be able to understand this example?


I always thought the demon angel ghost alien reptilian thing has to do with our ability to create character's for social interaction, for use with the theory of mind. For example I have a sense of a being called Icelander in my mind and before typing to this being I imagine what their response would be to the words I send and this acts like a feedback loop to tailor my response to what makes most sense. hmmm this might be what's wrong with the internet because I just I lied, I don't do this on the internet just with real people in real life but that's just a side track...

so my guess is the demon thing is a whacked out version of this thing we do all the time for social interaction, where we can't distinguish our internal representation from external reality.

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Well many people already have understood my example in this thread. The fact that you cannot is due to the fact some just ain't gonna get it. Because they can't or they choose not to.

As to the rest of your post now it's my turn to not understand what you are talking about.

showme said:

Haha. You should win a medal for over-simplifying. You have left so much out.

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Well please.

Tell us exactly how it works.

showme said:

Icelander said:

Single celled organisms basically either expand into their environment or contract to avoid it. Really we do the same. If we feel calm and relaxed we are confident and expand into our environment. When afraid we contract and close ourselves off.

Now if, lets say, in those formative years you experienced too much contraction through a very anxiety creating dysfunctional environment, you might find yourself with a default setting of contraction. You really can't fully expand anymore because some part of you is somewhat permanently set in contraction. Now this would operate below conscious levels most of the time imo.

So you are in a situation were you want to expand and you feel you are doing the right things but you are contracting instead. You don't know why, everything feels out of control. It's as if some outside force was influencing you.

Now think about the idea of Demonic possession. Wouldn't it make sense that some people would feel like they were possessed by dark forces. The contraction being unconscious and automatic you wouldn't have a clue as to why you couldn't have the experience that your conscious mind was trying to direct.

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Haha. You should win a medal for over-simplifying. You have left so much out.

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awesomebastard said:

showme said:

Haha. You should win a medal for over-simplifying. You have left so much out.

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Well please.

Tell us exactly how it works.

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Icelander said:

I can however criticize the person who did.


you will see that your intent then is misguided.

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Quote:

btw, I meant criticize what you wrote, not you as a person, which is obvious by my post.

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AlphaFalfa said:

My girlfriends mom challenged a ghost that she believed lived with them and tormented them in various ways(dreams, pulling of hair, objects thrown or hidden in places where no one would have put them(wallets in shoe boxes)

She explicitly said that the ghost would never break her faith in god. Within two days, she was compleltly possessed but actually was quite unviolent and just benignly sat there, staring at people and telling them that he was not her mother.

I believe that this happened especially because my girlfriend has a very strong reaction to me changing personalities, when I poke at the idea that I might be possessed.

Also, it would be best not to give up the possibility that it could be both - that subconcious overtakings of the mind exist, simply out of our inability to tell the difference betweem interpretation and its affects on experience and also that ghosts can access the mind in some way that control it.

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